St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-06-25
A WIFE'S WORK.
JOE HOWARD, JR., TELLS THE STORY
OF A NEWSPAPERS SUCCESS.

plish.
A newspaper helpmeet
You know the New York Stats
Zeitune?
You know its magnificent granite build
ing that stands on what was once known
as Tyron row, now the base Of City Hall
square at the bridge entrance, with
cellars and Outreachings that extend at
least a hundred feet under the center
of the street, with no more right there
than / would have in the Kingdom of
Heaven prior to the shutfling off my
mortal coil.
Who owns it,
Oswald Ottendorfer and the heirs Of
the late Mrs. Ottend0rfer.
Perhaps you think OttendOrfer made
the Stats Zeitung, and coined the cash
which paid for that beautiful ornamental
tom
Not much
Go back with ne quarter of a century,
and in a little cellar a kind of black place
at that, look with me al a sturdy, stlbby,
modest, driving, pushing, energetic
German named Uhl. See him set type
See him justify it. See him put it on the
stone. See him put it in the form. See
him lock up the form and watch him as
he puts it on his hand press.
Does he work the press?
No, he doesn't
But his wife works the press. a large,
fine looking woman, with well devel-
oped head a beautifully proportional
body, and with intelligence written in
every line of her attractive face. She pulls
with brawny arm, she pushes with expand
ing muscle. She works hour after hour
She takes from the press the dampened
sheet. She folds it, She sells it, and she
puts the coppers in her pocket
There they work day after day, night
after night.
The place is dirty.
The surroundings are unpleasant; the
work, as we who are printers know, is not
fit for delicate fingers or glossy skins or
fine attire. Toiling day in or day out,
working till the very dirt grimes the under
cuticle, these two helpmeets, hand in
hand, with a common sweat pouring from
their bodies, laid the foundation for the
leading German newspaper of the United
States of America.
The normal result.
A great property?
Yes, now. Not then. Many and many
time they wondered if the paper could
be got out. Many time and oft they
saw the matter prepared and type set
and justified and in the form. without one
sheet of paper dampened for the press;
but industry persevered in. economy prac-
ticed and clever laid programme Tor cir
culation followed out. led them on. step
by step, until they reached the basement,
and then an upper floor, and then an
oil bnx tod
great buildings on Chatham row.
Morning after morning for months, for
years, for decades, Mrs. Uhl came down
town, sold the papers and carried the
literary money in her carpet bag to her
home.
She sold the papers, she took the cash,
she kept the books she paid the bills and
she paid the balance. Gradually they
emerged from the realm of poverty and
placed their foot on the solid rock of in
dependence.
Then Uhl died and was gathered to his
fathers.
And Mrs Uhle
oh, she married the bookkeeper, for
''When the old man died the property sur
vived," and Oswald Ottendorfer, tall,
handsome Teuton who had been hired in
tleman a man of education, possible
factor in politics, made love to the widow,
captured her fair, fat and 40 hand and
led her TO the altar. The property ex-
banded, and when the Tweed ring burst
forth in all its uproarious roisterings in
the city its patronage was given to The
Stats Zcitung as freely as to The Post,
Commercial, Star and World Later On,
phenomenally rich, Mrs. Ottendorfer, who
had been. with her husband, the founder
of The Stats Zeitung, died universally
and with funeral procession
such as rarely attends the obsequies of a
private citizen she was carried to Green |
wood cemetery and laid away with every !
indication of popular respect and profess /
sional regard. !
Had it not been for her the Stats
Zeitung would never have existed
Had it not been for her the great Ger |
man organ would never have obtained the |
proportions it has to-day /
Joe Howard i'll Cincinnati Enquirer.